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Extensive exercise regimens are keeping astronauts healthy and protecting their hearts during extended space missions, new research finds. A study from scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas found no loss of heart mass or output, and no loss of function in the heart’s ventricles, during flights that can last up to six months. The findings could have implications for treating diseases in which gravity plays a role. They also could help in planning longer missions, such as to Mars. “Our study shows that, remarkably, what we are doing in space to preserve heart function and morphology is pretty effective,” said senior study author Dr. Benjamin Levine. He is a professor of internal medicine in the division of cardiology at UT Southwestern. It has been known that when astronauts return to Earth, they typically experience a dramatic loss in blood pressure. A key cause is remodeling that the heart experiences because of space’s microgravity conditions. While in space, astronauts’ bodies don’t have to counteract the effects of gravity. That means their bodies are working less hard. It’s similar to what someone would experience while on bed rest, the researchers explained. The heart muscle mass decreases by an average of 1% per week while in space and the volume of blood that the heart holds also drops. It was not known whether the two hours… read on > read on >

For most people, there’s no reason to give up gluten for good. But that’s not so easy for folks with two gluten-related medical conditions: celiac disease and gluten intolerance, according to Dr. Sarmed Sami, a gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic Healthcare in London. He offers some details about this protein and the two health conditions. Gluten is a protein found in grains including wheat, barley and rye. In people with celiac disease, eating it triggers an autoimmune reaction that causes cell damage to the small intestine. That reaction can cause diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss, bloating, anemia and lead to serious complications, Sami said. Gluten intolerance is more common, he added. “In gluten intolerance, there is no cell damage or inflammation. It’s more of a sensitivity: ‘Gluten doesn’t agree with me,’” Sami said in a clinic news release. “If you eat gluten and have an immediate reaction, such as diarrhea, that’s more likely to be gluten intolerance than celiac disease, which is a slow process that you don’t tend to feel immediately.” A sign of gluten intolerance or celiac disease is having one or more gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea, bloating or heartburn that diminish or disappear if gluten is removed from the diet. These symptoms then return if the person begins eating gluten again. It is important to be tested in case you have the more… read on > read on >

The risk of falls increases in older age, and along with it, the risk for serious physical or psychological damage, but there are steps people can take to help prevent these accidents. Each year, about 27% of adults 65 and older fall and about 10% of those are injured. “If you’ve experienced a fall or have a fear of falling, you are at a higher risk of falling. Once an older adult falls, they can develop post-fall anxiety syndrome,” said Dr. Angela Catic, associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine’s Center on Aging, in Houston. “It’s important for older populations to remain as independent as possible in their own homes. You can help support this by making sure common falling hazards are not in their homes,” Catic added in a college news release. She offered some tips for improved safety: Stay active but avoid exercises and equipment where seniors cannot be in complete control of their environment. This includes treadmills or other heavy machinery. Work with a physical therapist to determine what kind of exercise is best suited to the individual. Be aware of medications that can cause cognitive impairment. Give up slippers and flipflops in favor of shoes with traction. Make sure lighting is adequate both in and outside the house. Make sure paths inside the home and to bedrooms and living spaces are… read on > read on >

Faced with growing reports of inaccurate clinical lab tests, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday announced that it will for the first time regulate these vital diagnostic tools. Many Americans might have assumed that the FDA already had oversight of all medical tests; it does not. However, FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said the time is now to monitor the quality of high-tech tests for cancer, heart disease and a myriad other illnesses. “A growing number of clinical diagnostic tests are being offered as laboratory developed tests without assurance that they work. The stakes are getting higher as these tests are increasingly being used to drive treatment decisions,” Califf explained in an FDA news release. “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 70% of today’s medical decisions depend on laboratory test results,” he noted. “Given the role these tests play in modern medical care, their accuracy and validity have a significant impact on public health.” A handful of corporations, including Abbott Laboratories and Quest Diagnostics, develop and sell many lab tests and now dominate the marketplace. Some more common tests — such as those used in hospitals, pharmacies or doctors’ offices to spot strep throat, COVID-19 and other conditions — are already subject to pre-marketing FDA review. But thousands of so-called “laboratory developed tests” (LDTs), analyzed at many high-tech labs, face… read on > read on >

Planning for your long-term financial future doesn’t just make good economic sense — it could also save your life. People in both the United States and the United Kingdom have a higher risk of dying prematurely if they aren’t engaged in long-term financial planning, according to a report published online Sept. 27 in PLOS One. In fact, the researchers found that the shorter a person’s financial planning horizon, the greater their risk of dying. “The people who live the longest are the ones who are looking years into the future,” lead researcher Joe Gladstone, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Colorado Boulder, said in a university Q&A. “It’s very scary how many people are living week to week, month to month, paycheck to paycheck,” Gladstone added. “The majority of people are only looking financially out no more than a month ahead.” The study further revealed that long-term financial planning is most important to the health of those with the fewest means. Increases in financial planning were significantly associated with better health among households making less than $80,000 a year and with overall wealth lower than $450,000, the results showed. “Planning benefits health for financially disadvantaged people more than the advantaged, because those with greater wealth and income have a financial buffer to income or expenditure shocks, insulating them from experiencing financial hardship,”… read on > read on >

New parents bringing home their bundle of joy often carry something else with them as they leave the hospital: medical debt. That’s according to new research from Michigan Medicine that found postpartum women are more likely to have medical debt than those who are pregnant. The researchers studied this by evaluating collections among a statewide, commercially insured cohort of more than 14,000 pregnant women and more than 12,000 postpartum women. “Our findings suggest that current out-of-pocket costs before and after childbirth are objectively more than many commercially insured families can afford, leading to medical debt,” said lead author Dr. Michelle Moniz, an obstetrician/gynecologist at University of Michigan Health’s Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital. “Our study highlights the need to consider policies to reduce maternal-infant health care spending in order to ease financial hardship and distress and improve birth equity,” Moniz said in a Michigan Medicine news release. People who were seven to 12 months past childbirth living in the lowest-income neighborhoods had the highest likelihood of having medical debt. After that group, those with the most debt were pregnant women in the lowest-income neighborhoods, followed by other postpartum and pregnant women. “Having unpaid medical bills was not only significantly more common among postpartum individuals, but more common among the most socioeconomically vulnerable people,” Moniz said. “These results suggest that all postpartum individuals are at risk of… read on > read on >

Some children who have a common form of eczema should also be tested for allergic reactions because they may have a second allergic-type eczema, a new study suggests. While atopic dermatitis is common and usually develops by age 5, allergic contact dermatitis has similar symptoms and can be triggered by a range of substances. In general, eczema is a group of medical conditions causing inflamed, irritated and itchy skin. In the study, children with atopic dermatitis were more likely to test positive for allergies in patch testing. The findings were published Sept. 26 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. “When a dermatologist sees a child who looks like they have eczema, we usually think that it’s atopic dermatitis because nearly 1 in 5 children develop it,” said senior study author Dr. JiaDe (Jeff) Yu, an assistant professor of adult and pediatric dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Sometimes these kids could have allergic contact dermatitis, but the only way to tell is through patch testing, which is designed to identify substances that may be irritating your skin,” he said in a journal news release. Patient Liz Schoeben knows the importance of testing for this allergic-type eczema. Schoeben has had atopic dermatitis since she was 9 and now knows she also has the allergic contact dermatitis. “I remember having it in elementary school off… read on > read on >

Megan Thee Stallion is urging you to check on your friends. The rapper, whose offstage name is Megan Pete, is part of a new public service announcement called Seize the Awkward, a national campaign to encourage young people to talk to friends about mental health. “It’s important that we regularly check in on our friends and family and make sure to show empathy, encouragement and love when they’re struggling,” she said in a statement. “A strong support system can make a powerful difference in someone’s life.” Megan Thee Stallion’s involvement in the campaign may help reduce mental health stigma, Dr. Broderick Sawyer, a clinical psychologist in Louisville, Ky., told CNN. She is “finally making healing look as cool as it should be,” Sawyer said, adding that her involvement “is forcing the conversation to go mainstream. “Many centralizing platforms just have resources that pretend mental health is one-size-fits-all, that everyone is the same,” Sawyer said. “The truth is that people have wildly different experiences depending on their identities, and types of sociopolitical oppression they go through.” Robert Gebbia, CEO of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, told CNN that Pete’s involvement may feel more relatable as she works to reach young, marginalized people. Pete has also touched on mental health in her music: Her website, “Bad Bitches Have Bad Days Too” gathers mental health resources in… read on > read on >

The Biden administration is allocating $232.2 million in grants to help stem suicides and improve behavioral health care for at-risk groups. Suicide is happening at an “alarming” rate, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Last year alone, nearly 50,000 Americans died by suicide, up 2.6% from 2021, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. During this month, we are reminded that suicide is preventable, and no one should go through a suicide-related crisis alone,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said Wednesday, emphasizing that the Biden administration “is deeply committed to tackling the mental health challenges facing America, and particularly focused on addressing the alarming rates of suicide.” About $200 million of the grant will be used to build local capacity for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and related crisis services. The national suicide hotline was revamped last year with a three-digit number to make it easier to recall in a crisis. The new lifeline received nearly 5 million calls in its first year, almost 2 million more for similar timeframes on the previous hotline, according to HHS. Still, about 82% of respondents to a National Alliance on Mental Illness poll released in July were unaware that they could call or text those three digits for mental health help. With more… read on > read on >

THURSDAY, Sept. 28, 2023 (HealthDay News) – An advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday voted resoundingly against recommending a stem cell-based experimental treatment for ALS. Although the FDA isn’t bound by the votes of its advisory panels, agency scientists have already penned a scathing review of the drug, called NuOwn. The application from Brainstorm, the company that developed the treatment, was “scientifically incomplete” and “grossly deficient,” FDA staff scientists wrote in the review. Meanwhile, the advisory panel voted 17-1 against the drug to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Only a panelist representing patients voted for the medication, while one adviser abstained from voting, the Associated Press reported. “Creating false hope can be considered a moral injury and the use of statistical magic or manipulation to provide false hope is problematic,” Lisa Lee, a bioethics and research integrity expert from Virginia Tech who voted against the treatment said, the AP reported. ALS is typically fatal within three to five years of a patient’s first symptoms, as the condition destroys nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, taking away the ability to walk, talk, swallow and breathe. The FDA agreed to convene the advisory panel in response to a 30,000-signature petition from ALS patients and advocates. But a study from Brainstorm involving 200 patients did… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Exercise Can Preserve Astronauts’ Heart Health on Long Space Flights

Celiac Disease vs. Gluten Intolerance: What’s the Difference?

Take These Steps to ‘Fall-Proof’ Your Home

FDA Will Begin to Regulate Thousands of Lab Tests

Want a Healthy Old Age? Get Your Finances in Order Now

Childbirth Can Leave New Parents in Serious Medical Debt

Kids With Eczema May Need Further Allergy Tests

Megan Thee Stallion Urges Fans to ‘Check on Friends’ for Mental Health

Biden Administration Gives Funding Boost to Help Curb Suicides

FDA Panel Says No to Experimental ALS Drug